The lawyer Jürgen Rieger from Hamburg-Blankenese provided legal counsel to old Nazis and neo-Nazis for decades. Right up until his death in 2009, the Holocaust denier remained a key figure of the extreme right. Using funds from his clients’ estates, he acquired real estate for training centres and meeting places for neo-Nazis. Rieger acted as functionary for numerous neo-Nazi organisations, including the position of chairman of the Artgemeinschaft – Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft wesensgemäßer Lebensgestaltung e. V., a neo-­pagan, neo-Nazi organisation that, for a while, also included the assassin of Kassel district president Walter Lübcke among its members. In 2007 Rieger became the chairman of the Hamburg NPD and, in 2008, its deputy chairman at the national level.

In 1996, the Hamburg District Court upheld a ruling on the use of unconstitutional s­ ymbols. Rieger had been driving around ­Reinbek outside Hamburg in a ­Wehrmacht vehicle bearing SS insignia. Even though Rieger himself had several criminal convictions, he retained his licence to practise law.

The Hetendorf centre was mainly run by Rieger; between 1979 and 1998 it was used as a meeting place for political training sessions, midsummer celebrations, gatherings over the Whit weekend, and paramilitary exercises. Beate Zschäpe, one of the NSU terrorists, attended a training ­session there in 1997. The Land of Lower Saxony ordered the closure of the centre in 1998.

The Deutsches Rechtsbüro in Hamburg, a network of extreme-right lawyers and legal practitioners, was ­co-founded by Jürgen Rieger in 1992. It provided legal assistance and training for members of the right-wing extremist scene. Its head was Gisa Pahl, who had worked at Rieger’s law office for several years. NSU terrorist Uwe Böhnhardt attended one of her training sessions in 1997.